This invention relates to racks for plastic bags and more particularly to a cantilevered support arms apparatus for suspending plastic bags on a rack.
It is well known in the prior art to provide for use in a supermarket of a rack having a back wall with a pair of cantilevered support arms extending forwardly from each of the upper ends thereof. Such a pair of cantilevered support arms enables a stack of plastic bags having joined central tabs on the front and back walls thereof and opposing side handle portions with mounting holes punched thereon to be held on said rack by slipping the mounting holes over the respective free ends of the cantilevered support arms and moving the stack therealong to the back of the rack. Horizontal slits provided on the joined central tabs of the bags in the stack are then placed over a hook provided on the back of the rack. Such a setup enables the exposed wall of the front plastic flat bag of the stack to be grasped by the fingers and, upon being pulled forward, to be separated from the joined central tabs of the stack. This enables the opposing side handle portions on the front wall of the plastic bag to ride on their mounting holes along the cantilevered support arms while the back wall of the bag is still held on the stack by its central tab, thereby simply and effectively facilitating the opening of the bag for use by a checker.
It should now be clear that inasmuch as in the prior art each of the cantilevered support arms of the rack is a forwardly projecting wire or rod, if their ends are left exposed, the checker runs the risk of being poked by their relatively sharp points as she moves about during the filling of the plastic bags with articles. Accordingly, it has been the practice heretofore, to attach a flexible, plastic tube provided with a metal head, referred to as a feeler, as a safety precaution on the end of each of the arms. To attach the plastic tube, the diameter of the outer end portion of each of the wire support arms is reduced in diameter and the plastic tube is then forced thereover. The problem with attaching such a safety device on the end of each of the support arms is that because of the relatively rough treatment that the bag rack receives during the course of a day in a supermarket and the fact that plastic material deteriorates with age, these plastic tubes start to droop and eventually fall off the ends of the support arms. When this happens, the checker or box boy just continue to use the rack and bags with the reduced diameter ends of the cantilevered support arms exposed, thus risking even greater possibility of getting hurt if any part of their body happens to move thereagainst.